Kulbir Dhaliwal, who made headlines in December 2007 when a Siberian tiger mauled him and two others at The San Francisco Zoo, is in the news again–though this time with less felinity and more felony.
Kulbir, now 24, was taken into custody under suspicion of felony possession of three grams of cocaine after police stopped Kulbir and two other men for driving the wrong way on a one-way street near the San Jose State University campus.
Was this error in judgment the result of lingering trauma, or just another bad decision in a series of mistakes made by a troubled young man? In September 2007, police pulled over Kulbir and a friend under suspicion of drunk driving. When officers attempted to proceed, Kulbir drunkenly lashed out and the officers had to forcibly restrain him.
Looking back on the tiger attack it becomes clearer that the only thing Paul is a victim of is his penchant for stupid decisions. After the zoo director told reporters that it was improbable the tiger escape on her own, investigators discovered several sticks and pine cones in her cage that could not have fallen naturally, in addition to a footprint at the top railing of her cage.
In the later affidavit, Kulbir’s younger brother Paul admitted that the boys had been drinking and taunting the tiger before she escaped. Police also seized marijuana, liquor, and synthetic urine (typically used to foil drug tests) from the boys’ car. The San Francisco Zoo settled the brothers’ post-attack civil suit for 900K
